New Canaan Police on March 8 arrested an 89-year-old Oenoke Ridge man by warrant after finding him intoxicated behind the wheel following a crash at nearly 2 a.m.
At about 1:54 a.m. on Nov. 24 (a Monday), police were dispatched to the S-curve on White Oak Shade Road near Putnam Road on a report of a single-car crash, according to the affidavit of Officer Nicholas Falbo, which forms the major part of an arrest warrant application signed Feb. 18 by state Superior Court Judge Bruce Hudock.
There, police found a car at rest off the road in a common driveway with multiple airbag deployments and “severe damage” to the vehicle, according to the application.
Approached by police, the driver and sole occupant of the car said he was OK, Falbo said in the application.
Asked where he was coming from, the man “stated he was not sure,” Falbo said. Asked where he was headed, the man said he was going home, yet the man lived on Oenoke Ridge and license plate reader cameras showed that he had passed by his home and continued southbound all the way to the crash site. Asked what happened the man said “he could not remember,” the affidavit said.
Speaking with the driver, Falbo smelled alcohol on the man’s breath and saw “a nearly empty bottle of Barton vodka on the front passenger seat,” the arrest warrant application said.
Falbo then found that the vehicle had struck and dislodged a fire hydrant that ended up in the driveway.
The man was transported to Norwalk Hospital. Police obtained a search warrant to obtain his records from the visit and found that his blood-alcohol level was about .19, nearly 2.5 times the legal limit.
The man was additionally cited for failure to drive in the proper lane.
He turned himself in to police at about 11 a.m. on March 8. Police released the man on $2,500 bond and scheduled him to appear March 27 in state Superior Court.